The Last of the Music
by albino panda in a turtleneck
Summary: After 8 years of fighting people infected with a fungus that take over their minds, and trying to forget his past, Austin and Kira are given a challenge to smuggle an infected girl across the city in order to get their weapons back. This challenge, however, reunites Austin with his ex-songwriter, and she just happens to be the cure for mankind. Based on the game The Last of Us.
1. Chapter 1

"You can't escape your past, Austin."

"Can you _not_ say that again?" Austin grumbled, running his hand through his hair and leaning against a wall.

"You're gonna have to face it. We're shitty people."

"We are survivors." He opposed, his voice rising and echoing through the run-down building.

"Look, it's been eight years. Eight freaking years, so no matter how hard you try to-"

"It is over, Kira!" He got up, ready to leave the old building. Each footstep echoed; looking at all the dead corpses on the ground made it feel like you could almost hear them-

Oh, wait. You could.

Kira and Austin heard small clicking noises behind them. They turned around, only to have the creature somehow sneak up behind Austin, grabbing him behind the neck, about to bite him. Austin had a strong grip on it, keeping it from doing just that, he would've been dead by then.

"Holy shit!" Kira exclaimed, killing the creature in just one shot to the head. "Well aren't you gonna thank me?"

Austin just shook his head and walked towards the door.

"Whatever. Damn clickers." Kira mumbled behind him.

No matter what had happened in the last eight years, Austin would never forget what happened at the very beginning of it all. This was one of the reasons he was so annoyed by Kira at the moment, maybe he would actually be able to forget it if she would just keep her mouth shut about it.

Being a single dad was never easy. His wife, Cassidy, has left him when their daughter, Sarah, was only one month old. She left him with the baby, divorced, and left somewhere unknown on the other side of North America, with no concern for Sarah and without even the smallest explanation.

He didn't think about this much now, but back then he wished he chose Ally. She was his best friend ( also ex-girlfriend) and songwriter. She got him to fame. But that all ended when he dumbly chose Cassidy over her. Besides, Ally would never do such an absurd thing like Cassidy did, especially not with any concern for their own child. She was way too sweet. Their family would've stuck together.

An eight-year-old Sarah was asleep in her bed, when a call from the home phone on her nightstand woke her up.

"Dez?" She asked into the phone, the number seemed familiar to her. She was smart for an eight year old. Also, her father's best friend was like a best friend to her as well. They were so close, it was like Dez was a part of the family.

"Sarah, honey, I need you together your daddy on the phone. There's an, um-" he was cut off. Sarah could hear a ton of commotion and chaos going around in the background. The question was what it was.

But being the eight year old she was, she didn't question that.

"Daddy?!" She called, taking a step out of her bedroom. She slowly opened the door of her father's bedroom. The TV was left on, a news reporter stood, trying to speak, but you could barely hear what she was saying. There was some kind of explosion foing on behind her, But the words, "infected", "fungus", and "cordyceps" seemed to make multiple appearances.

She noticed, but couldn't wonder what that meant- she literally didn't even know what half of those words meant.

She glanced out the window, a building just- blew up! The same exact explosions were happening on the TV.

She jolted back, letting out a loud, short scream. She was already terrified. "D-Daddy?!" Her small voice squeaked a little at the end. Sarah stole away into her bedroom again, grabbing her favorite stuffed giraffe for comfort, hugging it close to her chest.

The little girl sprinted downstairs. Her father's phone was going off on the counter. "Daddy!"

Sarah picked it up. 7 _missed calls. 2:16 AM._

Sarah quickly set it down, engulfing her giraffe in both her arms once again. She made her way into her father's office, in which he burst out the sliding glass door right as she walked in.

"Honey, are you ok?" Austin asked, looking down at his daughter.

She nodded, her bright blue eyes watering and short bob of blonde hair bouncing.

"Did anyone come in here?"

"No, why would anybody come in here?"

"It's something with the Tanners...I think they're sick."

"What do you mean?"

Just what was one of those "sick" people Austin was referring to broke through the glass on the door, quickly making its way up to Austin. He stepped out in front of Sarah, trying to protect her, and shot it. He back away slowly, with his daughter following.

"You-you-you-"Sarah stuttered, trying to believe that her Daddy would shoot somebody.

"There's something bad going on here." Austin explained breathlessly, his voice shaking. "And we gotta get out of here. Do you understand?"

"Yeah." Sarah's voice cracked. Austin took her hand, running towards the door. "Dez, come on!" He called.

Dez followed behind. "Holy shit, man, you got blood all over you."

"It's not mine, can we just get out of here?" Austin grumbled, stepping into the car.

"You got any idea what's going on?"

"I got some notion."

Dez hopped in the car and started it. "Sarah, how you holdin' up back there?" He asked twisting around to face her.

"I-I-I-I'm okay." She answered, despite the small tears falling from her eyes.

The car began moving forward. "They're saying half of those people lost their minds. Some sort of parasite or something."

"A minute ago, newsman wouldn't shut up about it." Austin informed, nervously tapping his fingers on the dashboard.

"They say where to go?"

"Said um...army's puttin' roadblocks out on the highway. No way were gettin' into Travis county."

"That means we need to get the hell out. 71?"

"Yeah."

"D-...did they say how many a-are dead?" Sarah question, almost choking on her own words.

"Probably a lot. They found this one family all mangled up inside their hou-"

"Dez!"

"Right...sorry."

There was a moment of silence until they passed a wrecked police car.

"Dammit, how did this happen?" Austin asked.

"They got no clue. But we're not the only town. First they're saying its just the South, now they're going on about the East Coast and the West Coast..."

They could see an enormous ranch house in the distance caught on fire.

"Holy crap. That's Elliot's farm. Heh, hope that son of a bitch made it out. Glad me and Trish didn't move in with him and his wife." Dez explained, somewhat nonchalantly. Dez and Trish had been married for five years then, and had offered to move in with their best friends- which was ironically Ally's biggest fear as a teenager.

"I'm sure he did. Wait...why would you move in with him? Who'd he marry?"

"You remember Ally? Psshhh, of course you do. Her."

"Who's Ally?" Sarah asked. She had heard about most of her father's friends, even Elliot once- from Dez. To Austin he wasn't really much of a friend. She just found it odd that she never once heard the name "Ally" From them.

"Your Daddy's songwri-"

"Dez!"

"Oh, right..."

"A friend." Austin answered.

Sarah knew her dad used to be famous, just not that Ally Dawson, the singer/songwriter she was a huge fan of, was the same Ally they were talking about. While Austin began another career that didn't have to do with music when Sarah came along, Ally continued her music career.

Sarah paused a few seconds and asked, "Are-are we sick?"

"No, of course not." Austin answered.

"How do you know?"

"They said it's just...people in the city. We're fine."

"But didn't Momma work in the city?"

"Yes...yes she did." Sarah though that she died when she was one. That's what Austin told her. "We're fine. Trust me."

They came across a group of people yelling for them to stop.

"Let's see what they need." Dez said, close to stopping.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, keep driving." Austin opposed.

"They got a kid, Austin."

"So do we."

"But we got room." Sarah's small voice chimed in.

"Hey! Hey, stop! Stop!" A man in the group of people by the road screamed, flailing his arms desperately.

"Keep drivin', Dez."

"We should've helped them." Sarah said as they passed the family.

They came to a turn; another ambulance sped across the road.

"Holy shit." Dez mumbled. There was what seemed like a never-ending traffic jam. "Oh...this is bad..."

"Everyone and their mother had the same damn idea!"

"We could just backtrack and-"

"Hey, what the hell, man!? Let's go!" some one stood up out of their car, when some gruesome-looking creature in a hospital gown attacked him. He was pushed back into the car, when another came along, attacking another passenger.

Both of them, along with a few others, started making their way up the street.

"Holy shit, Dez, let's go!" Austin yelled as Dez swerved around the other direction, one of the "sick" people, some kind of fungus spreading across his body, in the same hospital gown, came crashing into the window.

Sarah screamed, she was looking through that window at that time. Tears began forming in her eyes again.

"Dammit, did you see that?!" Austin exclaimed.

"What the hell was that?!"

"Damn freaky as hell! Turn here, turn here."

The road was flooded with people running from something.

"C'mon people, move!" Dez shouted.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no..."

"What are they all runnin' from?" Dez tried to get through all the people running in the opposite direction.

"Get us outta here."

"I'm trying!"

"You can't stop here."

"I can't run through them, Austin!"

"Then back up!"

"They're behind me to!"

It took Dez a minute, but he found a way to get around the RV that was blocking him. "There we go, there we go, there we go..."

Before they knew it, a car came from the other side of the intersection, crashing into the side of the car.

Austin lay, unconscious for a minute. Sarah was surprisingly the first to wake up.

"Daddy? Hey. Hey!" She tried to shake him awake.

"What?" Austin groaned before realizing the situation they were still in. He saw another one of the "sick" creatures attacking some one else through the cracked window. "Get back, Sarah, get back."

He kicked through the glass, shattering it completely so they could get out. After climbing out, one of those...things ran at him. Austin tried punching at it, almost losing until Dez came to the rescue and shot it.

"Daddy?!" Sarah shouted, still trapped inside the car.

"I'm here, baby girl, grab my hand." She climbed out of the car, limping as the tears started forming again in her eyes. There was a sharp pain going in her left leg.

"What is it?"

"M-my leg h-hurts."

"How bad?"

"Pr-pretty bad."

"Here." Austin picked up his daughter as he made a run toward more people running for their lives, Dez holding his gun out. Austin quickly looked behind his back to see more if the infected...things following not that far behind them and picked up his pace.

There was an explosion near a gas station, that whole area catching on fire and a telephone pole collapsing right in front of them. Sarah gasped, burring her head into her father's chest, trying hard not to look.

The group swept around the corner. One of the infected was attacking a stranger beside them. An explosion went on in a house in the distance.

A car crashed into another driving along the road, somehow leaving yet another fire in front of their eyes.

Sarah squinted an eye, horrified at the little bit of the scene she was able to see.

"Hey, hey we're gonna get out of this. I promise." Austin whispered to her. However, all she wanted to know was exactly what the heck was going on.

"There's too many of them! In the alley!" Dez yelled, pointing in the other direction. They made the turn, when another one of the infected pushed Austin up against a wall. Using one arm to gold Sarah and another to fend it off, he pushed the creature to the ground and Dez shot it. "He's dead!"

"They're gettin' through the fence!" Austin yelled just as he was about to take a breath for air. A group of about six of those creatures were chewing and clawing their way through a barbed wire fence.

"In here!" Dez screamed, taking a turn to a patio of a cafe. A few more infected climbed over a brick wall, catching up to him. Austin ran in through the back door to the cafe, Dez shutting the door behind them, with a few infected arms stuck in the door.

"Go! You've got Sarah!"

"What?"

"I can outrun them! It's ok!"

Austin slowly went for the other door. There was a wrecked ambulance right outside of it, one of the creatures crawling, trying to catch up to Austin.

He made his way up a hill, being stopped by a guard shooting the infected people behind them. "It's okay, baby girl, we're safe, we're safe." Austin whispered. "Hey! Hey- we need help." he shouted.

"Stop!"

"Please. It's my daughter, I think her leg is broken..." He took a small step forward.

"Stop right there!"

"Look...we're not...sick."

"We got a couple civilians around the perimeter. Please advise. Sir. You got a little girl."

"Listen, buddy, we've just been through hell."

Sarah looked up as the guard shined his flashlight in her splotchy red face.

"No." Austin murmured as the guard started firing his machine gun.

They tumbled back down the hill, Austin making it out without getting hit. The guard came up close to him...

"Please...don't..." Before the guard could shoot, Dez sprinted up, shooting him in the back of the head.

"Oh no." Austin scrambled up to his daughter, who was shot right in the stomach, lying down on her back, covering her wound with her small hands.

"No, no, no. Move-move your hands, baby." Sarah squeaked as she clutched on to her father's arm, as he was trying to find a way to stop the bleeding. "I know this hurts, you're gonna be okay, you're gonna get through this." Sarah heaved in and out, losing her breath. "I'm gonna pick you up." Austin kneeled down, gently picking his daughter up in his arms.

Sarah's squeaking and sobbing suddenly stopped. Austin could feel her pulse do the same. "No. No don't do this to me, baby girl come on." For the first time in forever, he was tearing up. "No, no." He held Sarah closer to him, hoping to somehow find a pulse again. "Oh, baby girl, no, please." The grip Sarah had on his arm loosened, her body drooped down like a wilting flower.

"No no no no no no no, please..." He said even though he already knew the young girl was dead. "Please, baby girl..."

The amount of confirmed deaths had passed to two hundred. The governor had called a state of emergency. Hundreds of dead bodies lined the streets. Panic spread worldwide after the leaked report from the World Health Organization showed that any vaccine tests that could cure this infection had failed. Riots had continued for many days, and winter rations were at an all time low. A group calling themselves the Fireflies had claimed responsibility for the attacks. Their public charter calls for the return of all the branches of the government. Demonstrations broke out following the execution of six more alleged Fireflies. Everything about it on the radio sounded so cliche, but so true: _when you're lost in darkness, look for the light. Believe in the Fireflies._

But what happened eight years ago had nothing to do with what was happening now- all Austin and Kira needed to do was get their weapons back. They only had one gun, all their other weapons were stolen.

"Well...what now?" Austin questioned, giving up on the plan to find a Firefly to get some weapons. They had looked everywhere and couldn't seem to find one.

"Don't you remember?! We look for a Firefly."

"Do you even know how long we've been searching for one?!"

"Hey! You don't need to look any longer." A woman with cuts and scars all over her, clutching her side because of a bleeding wound stood in front of the door they were about to walk right out of. "What do you need?"

"Some one stole our knives, you got anything to do with this?" Kira sternly answered.

"Okay. But you want your weapons? You're gonna have to earn them."

"'The hell are you talking about?"

"You'll have to wait and see. I need something smuggled across the city. You do that, I'll give you your weapons back."

"How do I know you got them? From what I hear, military's been wiping you guys out." Austin protested.

"You're right about that. I'll show you the weapons."

"Search the area!" The group heard a man shout.

"Yes, sir!" The response came.

"I gotta go. What's it gonna be?" The woman questioned, slowly blacking away.

"I wanna see those knives." Kira answered.

"Follow me. Marlene, by the way." she replied, leaving the area with Austin and Kira following.

They exited the building, stalling into an alley and climbing up boxes and ladders. Now on top of a roof, they climbed through a window into a room.

Marlene stumbled onto the ground, painfully holding the wound on the side of her stomach.

"Hey, you okay?" Austin asked, helping her up.

"Get the fuck away from her!" Some one who was already in the room before they were there yelled, two inches away from stabbing Austin in the back.

"It's fine." Marlene said to the girl.

Austin was stunned for a moment before he comprehended who the mop of messy brown hair and eyes to match that threatened to kill him was. "Holy shit."

**Whew! I did it! If anyone reads this it would mean a lot to me, so please read this. I just wanted you to to know, I'm really stepping out of my comfort zone with this story. I usually do fan fictions in character, same age, same situation as the show. I just got really obsessed with this game called The Last of Us, and it's got an amazing story with it, I couldn't help but write this. I'm pretty sure it won't be one of those stories I wrote that I get bored with, and don't work on it much. That happens a lot. And if there's an coincidence that you've played this game or watched it, you know there's a huge age gap between the two main characters, (which would of course be like Austin and Ally in this story) and no, I don't ship it. thats just gross. So its not exactly word for word with the game, quite a but is altered. And forgive me of this is poorly written, I usually write at night and couldn't wait to get to this part, so the writing and the story will get better as I go, promise. Same with typos, probably a lot of because the autocorrect on my ipad glitches a lot on this website for some reason. And I would highly recommend The Last of Us if you have a Play Station 3, and if not, watch PewDiePie or some one else play it (which is what I did because I don't even have a PS3 :P) I promise of you like anything to do with a zombie apocalypse, or maybe even if you don't, you'll love it. Ok, I ranted on really long, bless you if you're still reading. :) bye, LOVE YOU!**


	2. Chapter 2

"A-A-A-A-" Austin couldn't even finish the girl's name.

"-lly. Yeah, Ally, that's my name. Now did you come here to stutter or to actually figure some shit out, Austin?"

"What's going on?" Kira questioned as she stepped out the window.

Ally turned around to face her, when Kira's mouth went to a gape. "Holy shit," she said as if she was mimicking Austin.

"Oh my God, what happened?" Ally asked, making her way over to Marlene.

"It's fine. It's just...a stab, but it was a small knife, ok? I got us help. But I can't come with you."

"Then I'll stay."

"Ally, you know I love you like a sister, but we will never get another shot at this."

"Wait...we're smuggling _her_?" Austin questioned.

"There's a crew of Fireflies that'll meet you at the Capitol building." Marlene said.

"That's not exactly close." Kira protested.

"You're capable." Marlene grabbed some bandages off a table and began covering her wound. "You hand her off, come back, the weapons are yours. Double what they stole from you."

"Speaking of which, where are they?"

"Back at the camp."

"We're not smuggling shit until I see them."

"Then you'll have to follow me. But she can't cross that part of town. Especially not alone."

"Why the hell not?!"

"You'll see sooner or later. And I want him to be with her." Marlene explained, pointing to Austin.

"Bullshit, I'm not going with _him_!"

"Ally..."

She sighed and took a moment to calm down about the situation. "How do you know them?"

"I overheard them saying that they needed a Firefly. Their weapons got stolen and...I know where they are."

"Just go with her to the tunnel and wait for me there." Kira said.

"Ugh..." Austin sighed. "You know, why do-"

"I know we used to be friends and all that, but now...she's just cargo, Austin."

"Marlene..." Ally started, trying to convince her to a way out of this.

"No more talking. You'll be fine. Just go."

Austin turned towards Kira. "Don't take too long." He trudged out, Ally catching up with him, following.

Tons of corpses were scattered outside. Ally scanned the scene quickly. The sky was dark and cloudy, every single detail of the landscape yelled "get the hell out of here before you get brutally murdered by fucking soldiers or Fireflies!"

"I heard the all the shooting, but...what happened?"

"The Fireflies. Same thing's gonna happen to us if we don't get off these streets."

"Well you're the pro. I'm just following you."

A message played through the city repeatedly: "Attention. Harboring or aiding wanted criminals is punishable by death. Do not put yourself at risk. Report any suspicious activity immediately."

Austin made his way through an opened gate and turned to a subway, Ally close behind. Up a couple of stairs, they were close to where they were supposed to be.

"Where are we going?" Ally asked.

"Up there. It'll lead us to the North Tunnel." Austin answered, pointing up to a platform they would have to find a way to climb up on.

"How are we supposed to get up there?"

"Just give me a minute." Austin searched around, finding a bin and rolling ort there. They climbed on top of the bin and jumped on the platform.

"Okay, first of all...what the hell happened?" Austin asked, stepping inside the building.

"What do you mean?"

"You. I've only been with you for five minutes and I can already tell something happened. I don't know what you're trying to prove, but tell me what happened between when the world was normal and now that made you change that drastically."

And change, she did. It might be hard to imagine Ally Dawson as a sassy killer who always carries around a switchblade with her and became skilled with a bow. She still had a few of the same characteristics about her she did sixteen years ago, like loving lame jokes and trying to lighten the mood in a tough situation by humming a song or saying "doing things the Ally way" after she killed an infected person. She, however, had hardly been able to step out after she was taken in by Marlene. She was being smuggled for the same reason she couldn't step out.

"Well, let's see. You left me, that infection spread, and here I am, having to stay hidden but fight for my damn life at the same time. You can't expect anyone to be too sweet after eight-years-and-counting of fighting for survival. It almost makes the idea of the Hunger Games seem like unicorns and rainbows."

"What's the deal with you and Marlene anyways?"

"We're really good friends." They turned to a corridor filled with debris laying around.

"You're friends with a Firefly, huh?"

"She used to be one of Trish's friends. Before the infection. Actually, it was middle school. Speaking of Trish, I have no idea what happened to her. She could've gotten infected, killed, ran away, joined the Fireflies, because Marlene is the only Firefly I know."

"Hmm...so instead of doing anything productive you're hiding out with your Firefly friend, is that it?"

"No...it's a lot more complicated than you think," Ally said, taking another turn. "Look, I can't tell you why you're smuggling me, if that's what you're getting at."

"Wanna know the good part about my job? I don't need to know why. To be honest I could never give two shits why."

"Great!"

Austin opened a door leading into a small room. "This is it." He nestled into a seat, closing his eyes in an attempt to fall asleep.

"What are you doing?"

"Killing time."

"What am I supposed to do?"

"I'm sure you will figure that out."

Ally walked across the room slowly, making her way to a windowseat. "Your watch is broken."

How did this girl seem to know how to bring back memories? Just being there already brought back a ton.

The night before the infection spread and Sarah died, she had gotten him that watch for his birthday. Many would question how an eight year old would be able to do that, she would just reply, "I know people."

After about two hours, Austin was waken up by the same horrid clicking noises he heard earlier that day. He watched, stunned as Ally slammed the creature against a wall, holding it by it's neck as it was screeching and trying its best to get her. She took her switchblade and stabbed it in the mushroom it had for a head, than twice in the chest, finishing it off with a punch across the head as it slid down in a corner.

Clickers. They were what happens to you if you are infected for around five months. The fungus grows outside the head, covering their eyes, making them blind. Their hearing increases dramatically, though, and they use clicking noises to communicate with each other, kind of like bats.

Ally turned around, wide-eyed as Austin stared. "What makes you so surprised I did that?" She sighed, wiping her hands on her jeans and pacing to the other side of the room. "Can we not just get the hell out of here?"

"We need to wait for Kira...and if you could take care of yourself... Why the hell was Marlene watching over you and now why am I?"

"I told you, Marlene and I are good friends, she's not exactly 'watching over me.' It's just that..." She tried to think of a way to explain it without giving away the reason she was being smuggled. "If I go out... I could be accused of being something I'm not..." She said slowly.

"What do you mean? What on earth do the Fireflies want with you?"

"Hey. Sorry I took so long, soldiers everywhere." Kira said, entering the room and turning towards Austin. "I just saw the merchandise. It's a lot. We doin' this?"

Austin took a look at Ally and back at Kira. "Yeah, c'mon."


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the long-ish wait. Or at least it feels like it was a long wait for you guys :p. most updates won't be this long, it's just been a really hectic week. And sorry its so short, i felt bad because of the wait with school starting in just a mtter of days, i dont know how that will affect how much time i have to write. hopefully once every wee. We got broken into two days before my mom's birthday, they stole my XBOX IT JUST GOT REAL YOU DO NOT WANT TO FUCK WITH ME IF I FIND OUT YOU STOLE MY XBOX *cough* it's literally like the 3rd or 4th time we've been broken into this summer, that's what ya get for living on busy road but have no neighbors because there's a ton of bushes diving your house from an area of apartments and duplexes, and all the other houses like a mile down the road which you pass my house. And my birthday is the day after my mom's, so you can imagine.**

Austin lead the way, quickly running out of the pouring rain and back into a small cabin, which had corpses lying carelessly around the place. There was a gun still being tightly gripped by a dead Firefly, which Austin found and used. Sure, it might have a splotch of blood on it and little ammo, but it would have to do for now.

Making way out of the back door, he was slapped upside the head with a soldier's huge shotgun.

"Hands on your head!"

Another solider came out from behind them, holding a gun. "On your knees."

"Scan them."

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit..." Ally murmured, tugging at her old souvenir sweatshirt from back in Miami, searching for her switchblade she was sure she stuck in her pocket.

"Sorry!" She said sarcastically, stabbing the soldier's leg as he held the machine to her. He tried shooting, but was attacked and pushed over by Austin, Kira taking care of the other soldier.

But she was too late. A bright red "INFECTED" flashed on the screen, reveling her "secret."

Kira picked the machine up, scowling at the result. "What-"

"I thought we were just gonna...hold them up or something." Ally said in an attempt to take it from her.

"Marlene set us up?" Austin snatched the scanner from Kira.

"I'm not really infected. And why would she set you up? She just met you, and she doesn't even know I knew you before."

"So this was lying?" He questioned sarcastically, tossing it towards her.

"Look at this!" Ally rolled up her sleeve, showing a green, yellow, nasty bite on her forearm. "It's 3 months. I swear."

"No, everyone turns within two days." Kira objected.

"Really, there's something wrong with me. I'm immune, or-"

Austin shook his head with disbelief. "I'm still not buyin it."


End file.
